Top 16, Week 5 bwin MVP: Omar Cook, EA7 Emporio Armani

With his team’s season on the line, Omar Cook stepped up with his finest game of the season in leading EA7 Emporio Armani Milan to a 58-67 road win over defending champion Panathinaikos in Athens. Unfortunately for Cook and co., the result was not enough to keep Milan in the playoffs hunt. However the veteran playmaker can take comfort in two achievements along the way. Cook not only set a club Euroleague record with 12 assists, but his performance index rating of 22 also helped him snatch Top 16, Week 5 bwin MVP honors. Cook did most of his scoring early with a pair of first-quarter three pointers that helped Milan take a small lead. Then he managed the game effectively and set up teammates for a dozen scores to help the team to its second win in a row. When the buzzer sounded, Cook had 8 points on 2-of-5 three-point shooting plus 2 rebounds and 2 steals in addition to his assist totals, which matched a career high. Cook’s index rating was best among all Top 16, Week 5 players on winning teams. The No. 1 index of the week, which was also the best of this season and one of the best in Top 16 history came from Unics Kazan guard Lynn Greer, who amassed 33 points on excellent shooting, 6 rebounds and 6 assists for an index rating of 43. However Greer’s team blew a 13-point fourth quarter lead and lost 94-87 at Fenerbahce Ulker. Rounding out the list of Top 16 Week 5’s best performances were FB Ulker scorer Bojan Bogdanovic, Real Madrid forward Nikola Mirotic and Gescrap BB forward Marko Banic, each with index ratings of 20. Bogdanovic paced his team in their season-saving win with 20 points and 5 rebounds. Mirotic tallied 18 points and 10 rebounds as Madrid bested Unicaja 85-65. And Banic posted 16 points and 8 boards in a memorable 60-59 win over Montepaschi Siena.

Individual highs: Lynn Greer, 33 points

Greer’s career-best scoring effort was also the most points scored by a single player all season. The Top 16’s leading scorer remains Montepaschi guard Bo McCalebb, though his average dropped to 17.2 points per game. Mirsad Turkcan, the competition’s all-time leading rebounder, proved again he’s the best rebounder around with 13 boards in Fenerbahce’s win. That not only gave him the most rebounds of the week, but raised his Top 16-leading average to 11.5 rebounds per game. Cook’s 12 assists were not only the most of the week, but the most in the Top 16 all season and tied for the second most in the league. Cook is now the Top 16 leader with 6.8 assists per game. Panathinaikos guard Dimitris Diamantidis and CSKA big man Darjus Lavrinovic shared the weekly high with 4 steals apiece. Galatasaray Medical Park guard Jamon Lucas leads the Top 16 with 3 steals per game. Mirza Begic’s 3 blocked shots were the most recorded in the Euroleague in this week. Maccabi big man Richard Hendrix is the Top 16 leader with 2.4 rejections per game. Mirotic, the bwin MVP for December, was the only player in Top 16 Week 5 to register a double-double.